Storms
by X.Kuchisake-Onna.X
Summary: Dee Reynolds got caught in a hailstorm on her way home from work. After crashing and passing out, she wakes to find herself in an unfamiliar town.
1. Accident

**A/N: this is completely original, so no canon characters, plot, monsters etc. will come into this. It does have similarities to Downpour, as there are a lot of storms (hence the name) and a drowning, but this is completely coincidential as my friend and I came up with this before Downpour was released.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Silent Hill or anything related to it. I do however own most of the things in this story, unless stated otherwise.**

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Dee Renolds sighed quietly as she tapped her fingers against the steering wheel. The traffic was a nightmare. Not only that, but there were dark clouds overhead, signalling that there might be a storm coming. She had been sitting for a good ten minutes and had barely moved. It took about forty minutes to get home from her work on a good day, and today she wasn't going to be home until after six.

Brushing platinum blond hair from her eyes, she watched, bored, as the traffic moved at a snails pace. She was barely even paying attention any more, until the sound of hail hitting her windshield brought her attention back to outside. The traffic, if it was possible, was even worse behind her. The traffic stretched as far as the eye could see, until the cars were mere dots in the distance.

She was tempted to take the turn off just ahead. It was a much faster way home, as no one ever used that route, and it was a much straighter road, too. The reason no one used it though, was because it lead straight to Silent Hill. There were several rumours surrounding that town, none of them good. It used to be a busy resort town, but now was all but deserted. People claimed that even before it had been abandoned, strange things used to happen. Dee wasn't one to believe rumours though, she never had been.

She licked her lips and groaned. It was taking so long to get home. Thankfully the traffic was starting to move a little quicker. She slowly approached the turn off leading to Silent Hill. With only a seconds hesitation, she changed direction and drove down the narrow road. She would probably be able to cut her journey in half now.

As she drove, she noticed hailstones hitting her windscreen becoming faster. It wasn't much of a difference at first, but the hail was slowly getting quicker and heavier. Before long she had to turn on her windscreen wipers, and even then the short space of time between each wipe left the entire windscreen obscured by half melted slush.

Dee sighed and pulled a face. She had hoped to avoid the storm, but it appeared that wasn't going to happen. She pressed a foot down on the accelerator and sped up, ten miles per hour over the limit. After a few minutes she passed a sign stating that she was entering a forty zone, but kept going at her original sixty.

A flash of lightening startled her, and she was given a second fright by the following thunder. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she focused on the road. She hated thunder with a passion, had since she was a child. Being caught out in a storm was not something she was particularly happy about, especially since it was making driving difficult. Each time lightening flashed or thunder bellowed, she visibly jumped, before returning back to her tense posture. Biting her lip slightly, she continued to drive.

After around five or so minutes, she passed a large sign with peeling grey paint. The words 'Welcome to Silent Hill' were written on it in white letters, though they were dulled with age and dirt.

Despite being disbelieving of the stories told about the place, she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. The rumours had to come from somewhere, right? They wouldn't just get started for no reason.

There was a flash of lightening, scarily close, which illuminated the road she was driving on. Just ahead, there was a figure, which appeared to be shuffling, as if hurt. Two more consecutive lightning bolts hit the ground, lighting up the area once more. This time, the shuffling figure was a little closer. Close enough to see it properly.

Although it looked mostly human, it had strange hands. Instead of fingers, it had one sharp, bone-like appendage ending in a sharp point. The face was shredded to pieces, with chunks of semi-rotted flesh entirely missing or hanging off, only kept on by thing strands of skin.

The thing looked up, right at the car speeding towards it, and lurched forwards. Dee screamed and swerved to avoid it. In her panic she pressed the acceleration instead of the breaks, and her sweaty palms slipped from the wheel. She quickly grasped the wheel again, so hard her knuckles turned white, but by then it was too late; she had already lost control of the vehicle.

The ground was slippery from the hail and uneven due to age and neglect. This made the already dire situation worse as one of the car's back wheels bumped over a pothole and sent it spinning. Though it didn't spin much, it was enough for the front of the car to swing to the side, close to the barrier separating the road from the sheer drop on the other side.

It knocked against the metal barrier hard, and Dee screamed again, so frightened and shocked she was barely breathing. The vehicle strained against the barrier, but didn't break it. It came to an abrupt stop, causing Dee to jerk forwards. Her head connected with the windshield and she felt a sharp pain shoot through her forehead, originating from the left, just below her hairline.

She groaned and tried to move, but everything went fuzzy and she felt as if she was going to throw up. She glanced to her side and saw the blurry figure of a person, though she couldn't make out any features. She just managed to make out grey, bloodied skin and hollow black eye sockets before everything went black.


	2. Monster

Dee let out a small whimper as her light brown eyes blinked open. Her left leg throbbed painfully and she had a splitting headache.

She forced herself into a sitting position, leaning heavily on her elbows. Glancing around, she saw her car a few feet away, tipped on its side. She must have been thrown out of it during the crash. Strange, she didn't remember being tossed from the car.

Dee slowly got to her feet, wincing when pain shot up her thigh. The denim of her jeans had ripped and there was a dark purple bruise on her leg, with a small scrape right in the centre.

The woman made her way over to her car. It was pretty beat up; the glass from the windshield littered the ground, and front passenger door had a deep dent where the handle was. It was covered in other, smaller dents as well, along with several scratches.

Her rucksack, which contained her mobile, money and other assorted items in case she got stranded was kept in the back seat. Dee managed to wrench open the door and lean in, her fingertips able brush a strap just enough for her to pick it up. Leaning so far into the vehicle when it was on its side was difficult, but she managed. Dumping the bag on the ground, she rifled through it for her first aid kit. Noticing it wasn't there, she looked back in the car. It was right at the bottom, caught on the seatbelt on the seat furthest away. There was no way she would be able to reach that.

Sighing heavily, Dee carefully sat on the cold ground, careful not to jostle her leg too much as it hurt badly. She picked up her phone and dialled 999, but it refused to ring. Instead, she just got static. She tried once more, but got the same response. She must have no signal.

She would have no choice but to go into town, try to find a pay phone and call for help.

Shouldering her backpack, she slowly got to her feet, brushing slightly damp hair from her eyes. She had completely forgotten about the hailstorm, which must have stopped after she passed out. She hoped it wouldn't come back.

As she walked, her mind drifted to the events just before the crash. Someone - or some_thing_had been on the road, which had caused her to freak out. The image of the bloody eye sockets filled her mind, and she shuddered. It had to have been her imagination, right? Someone had been on the road, and she had been unable to see them properly due to the hail. As for the monstrous face before she passed out, that could have been a hallucination. Something caused by the crash.

Yeah, that had to be it.

Dee saw a block of houses up ahead; the end of a residential street. Hurrying her pace a little, but not so much to cause her pain, she stopped in front of the first house. She knocked and waited, but there was no reply. She hadn't really expected one, but she had tried anyway. She pulled down the handle but it was locked, so she moved on to the next house.

She tried four houses before giving up. No one was around, and none of the houses were unlocked. She decided she might as well head back to the car and try to figure things out from there. She might even find something in the wreckage that could be useful.

She could barely remember which way she had come; the road split off into two ways, and when Dee had come there she hadn't really been paying attention. Now, she didn't know which road was the correct one. She took left, but after a few minutes it became evident that was the wrong way. She had ended up in another street. This one had larger, more expensive looking houses that were probably luxurious once, but now looked sad and dilapidated. Several were even beginning to fall apart, with caved in ceilings and sunken foundations.

As she walked, she became more and more desperate. It seemed like she would be stuck there forever. As if to make things even worse, the hail had started up again, pounding against her shoulders, soaking her blond hair.

Just as she was beginning to lose hope, she saw movement ahead. Squinting through the fog - which had slowly been getting thicker since she had woken up - she saw a shambling figure not far away.

Smiling slightly to herself, Dee called out to the person as she approached. The figure stalled, before slowly turning to face her. It lurched towards her, and Dee realized with shock that the person was heavily disfigured. As it got closer, she could see that it bore a striking resemblance to what she assumed had been her hallucination. What she had thought were empty eye sockets were actually deep set eyes, so caved in that they looked like black holes. There was no way that thing was human.

The person - or rather, creature - was close enough that Dee could see the details of its rotted flesh. It smelled rancid, but the smell was nothing compared to the sight.

Dee hastily backed away as one of its long, bony arms flailed at her, almost slicing her throat. She screamed as she stumbled backwards, shock and fear replacing all other emotions and filling her with adrenalin.

She shoved the creature, hard, and ran past it, ignoring the pounding in her head and aching thigh. She could hear it behind her, but it was slow, and Dee was gaining distance between it. Pausing for breath, she could still see it behind her, though not nearly as close as it had been. The house beside her had its door open slightly, and Dee rushed inside, closing the door behind her. Hopefully that would block it out, unless it was smart enough to open doors, though from what she could tell it didn't seem so.

What was it anyway?

Still gasping for breath, Dee made her way into what she assumed was the living room. The television was emitting loud static, but Dee ignored it. She found a phone lying on the table. She rushed over to it, dialling her mother's number. It dialled, but there was nothing but static. Sighing heavily, Dee slammed the phone back in the receiver. Did no phones work in this place?

She stood for a moment, feeling hopeless and lost. It occurred to her that the house may have a first aid kit. If not, it would hopefully at least have running water to clean her cut.

Making her way over to the door, she tripped over something. Looking down, she saw the cable for the TV. It ended abruptly before the socket. It looked as if it had been cut. The TV was still emitting static though. How was that possible?

Thoroughly creeped out, Dee left the living room as quickly as she could, heading upstairs. The first door she tried was a bedroom. Going inside, she found the wardrobe door open. Some of the clothes looked like they would fit, and Dee was eager to get out of her sodden jeans and shirt.

She found another pair of jeans and a tank top that looked suitable, and quickly changed. She found a denim jacket almost the exact same shade of denim as the jeans. She doubted anyone would miss them; it looked like no one had lived in this house for years. She was probably right.

She went back downstairs, looking for the kitchen. Opening the fridge, she soon realized there was nothing even close to edible. Everything was mouldy and almost beyond recognizable.

On one of the counters was an array of kitchen knives. It seemed like a good idea to take one, in case there were more of those things wandering around. The one from earlier was probably still hanging around.

She picked up the largest knife, gripping it firmly in her right hand.

As soon as she did, the area around the knife stand turned reddish brown. The top layer of the counter peeled away, revealing a dirty, bloody surface underneath. Slowly, the entire kitchen darkened and became tinged with red. The tile floor peeled away to reveal rotted wooden floorboards, and the paint lifted off, being replaced by crumbling plaster.

Looking around, Dee noticed that the whole place had completely changed. What was going on?


	3. Alone Again

Dee took no time rushing upstairs to grab her backpack, not wanting to hang around in the freaky house any longer than necessary. She would figure out just what the hell was going on later.

Taking the steps two at a time, Dee made it to the bedroom she had been in earlier, and shoved it open using her free hand. She crept in slowly, expecting something to jump out at her, but nothing did.

Her foot stood on something squishy and it made a disgusting wet noise, not unlike the squelch sound of an animal being run over. Looking down, the woman saw what appeared to be a mass of pulpy flesh, which was pulsating slightly. Gasping, she jumped back, staring in horror. The thing was literally a mass of pure flesh, about the size of a basketball. It was covered in weeping sores and bulging yellow pustules, filled with a liquid Dee did not want to think about.

There were more of them too. There were two by the end of the bed, almost twice the size of the one she had stood on. They were fused with the furniture, and straining against the wood of the bed, as if trying to break free.

Dee eyed the black backpack, sitting less than a metre away from the revolting lumps. She could get to it easily, but did she really want to make her way through the living carpet to get there?

Rubbing her temples wearily, she sighed heavily. Putting one foot out, she carefully stepped around the pulsating flesh in front of her, then picked her way around the room, managing to avoid stepping on any more. She reached the bed and exhaled. She wasn't even aware she had been holding her breath until she was breathing again. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she turned around. Trying to ignore the nauseated feeling in the pit of her stomach, she picked her way back around to the door again.

She stepped past one particularly horrid lump of flesh, and it began to pulse violently. Swallowing back bile, Dee kept looking ahead, refusing to glance down even for a second. When she finally made it into the hall, she heaved a sigh of relief. Whatever those _things_were, she hoped there was no more. She didn't think she could cope with those revolting masses again. She could still feel the vomit threatening to rise up her throat just at the thought.

Shuddering, the woman walked over to the stairs, her shoes making loud clapping sounds against the wooden floor. It was the only sound in the otherwise silent house, almost seeming to echo. It was eerie, and gave Dee the feeling that she was being watched.

'_It's nothing.'_she told herself. '_I'm alone. There's probably no one for miles.'_She wasn't sure if that was a comfort, or just another reason to feel hopeless and scared.

She wasn't really aware of where she was going, but she found herself standing back outside again. Outside was different, too. Instead of the foggy, decrepit streets, everything seemed dark and coated in red, as if covered in rust or dried blood. There were cracks on the road, which were more than twice as big as they had been the last time Dee was outside. The buildings were more destroyed, some with entire walls falling to pieces, or deep crevices were lawns should have been.

Dee stared in a mix of horror and confusion. What could have happened for everything to have changed so drastically? When she picked up the knife, everything in the house had sort of disintegrated, the top layer lifting up and distorting. Had that happened to the entire town?

The best thing she could do was look around and hope she ran into something that could help her. She didn't have a plan, but maybe if she wandered around long enough an opportunity to get help would present itself. It was wishful thinking, but better than sitting around acting helpless.

Choosing a random direction, she headed down the street. If only she had a map or something, at least then she would have a vague idea of where it would be best to go. Maybe there was a tourist office or something nearby. Silent Hill was a resort town back in the days, after all.

Squinting in the darkness, Dee frowned. She was in a new street, but it looked just like the one she had just left. It was all very confusing. Taking a sharp turn left, she looked around some more. She just hoped she was heading in the direction of shops or something. They might hold some useful items, though going by the state of what she had seen so far, everything was probably broken and useless.

Something moved up ahead, and a man turned into the next street, disappearing from sight.

Dee's heart rate sped up. The thought of human contact, the chance to get help, was the best thing imaginable. Maybe he would be able to tell her how to get out of this hellhole.

She sprinted after him, ignoring the burning in her thigh as her bruise protested to the exercise. She rounded the corner, feet thundering against the concrete as she tried to catch up.

The man heard her approaching, and paused, turning around to watch the woman quickly gaining on him. He looked shocked, but his features relaxed into a relieved smile. He was just as glad to see another person as Dee was.

The young woman stopped about a metre away, panting heavily. Just because she was slim, didn't mean she was fit.

"Who are you?" the man didn't seem hostile or suspicious, just surprised and slightly wary. Dee looked at him, taking in the details of his appearance. His dark brown, almost black hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in weeks. His blue eyes were ringed with dark circles, and his skin was pasty, as if he hadn't slept and was recovering from illness. Is that what she looked like, too?

"Dee. Dee Renolds." she answered simply.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see another person. I haven't seen another human being in over a month."

"How long have you _been_here?" Dee demanded. A long time, by the sound of it. Did that mean there really was no way out?

"Three months, maybe more. You start to lose track of time after a while." he looked at Dee, noticing her injuries. "You look like you've ran into some trouble recently. I'll give you some tips; when the place goes all dark like this, you have to be careful. Those... creatures... well, there's a lot more of them. You're going to need more than a knife if you want to defend yourself, though you were smart to pick that up. It's best to stay inside, too. There are less of them in buildings."

Dee stood silently, trying to process the information. Those creatures she had come across, there were more? Was Silent Hill literally infested with deformed, horrific creatures?

"As much as I hate to say it, it's best to be alone. There's more chance of survival if you're by yourself. No one to slow you down, see? I'm sorry but I don't know much about this place, that's all I can tell you." He glanced behind him as he spoke. He gave a small, sad wave and turned around, beginning to walk away. Within seconds he had been engulfed by the darkness.


	4. Note

Dee stood motionless for a moment, staring into the fog as if that would bring the man back. Squinting through the fog, she thought she could see the dark smudge of his retreating figure, but there was nothing. She was totally alone.

There was a loud thud behind her and she jumped, heart thudding in her chest. She whirled around, expecting to see another one of those awful creatures, but it was only an open door to a nearby house, banging open and close in the light breeze. Dee sighed in relief and shook her head. She was too on edge. No way was she going to do anything useful like this. She should have insisted on going with that guy, then she would have had someone to help her. Tagging along with a complete stranger wasn't top of her list of things to do, but then again neither was getting lost or killed.

Going after him now was pointless, she would never find him in this fog, even if he wasn't far. With nowhere in particular to go, she headed down another street, hoping she would come across something or someone that would help. Her fear had soon been replaced by a feeling of hopelessness. She hadn't even been stuck in Silent Hill long, but what she had seen had given her a very clear indication of what the town was like. The man had said there was no way out. What did he mean? Were the roads blocked off? Or was it something more sinister?

A leather clad foot hit something squishy and a disgusting smell wafted up. Instinctively, Dee breathed in, which only caused her to cringe and cough. It smelled of damp, warm meat and had an odd sweet tinge to it. It was the unmistakable smell of a dead body.

Dee tried not to look down as she maneuvered past, but the temptation was too much and she risked glancing at the body. It lay in a huddled heap on the ground, arms curled in front of it and legs sprawled awkwardly behind. The face was turned away from her, and the body was bloated, so it was impossible to tell the sex of the body. The bluish tint to the skin looked like it had been drowned, but there was no streams or lakes nearby that she was aware of.

There was a small piece of lined paper clasped in one of it's hands, and something was written on it in black ink. Despite the sick feeling in her stomach, Dee bent down, trying to read the paper, but it was too scrunched up. She swallowed hard, feeling as if she might throw up, but reached forward to take the paper. She plucked it from the dead grey hand with surprising ease. As soon as she did so, she retreated back, turning away. The paper smelled faintly of rot, but it was nowhere near as bad.

Flattening out the paper with her hand, she skimmed over the note. It was a diary entry:

_**May 6th – **my sister's boyfriend came over today. He turned up unexpectedly and she looked so happy to see him. I don't know why, he isn't even that great. They went out with friends and didn't come back until late. She was pretty drunk. Mom was really pissed off. It's not like her to be so irresponsible._

She was surprised to realize it was her sister's diary. The handwriting was definitely hers. She remembered the incident mentioned. She had gone out to a club with her boyfriend, Brad, and two friends. She had came back at one in the morning, so drunk she could barely walk, and her mother had shouted at her for what must have been twenty minutes. Suffice to say it had done no good: she went and did the exact same thing two weeks later, except that time she had not got home until three.

She had pocketed the note without even thinking about it, and wondered what part of her sister's old diary was doing so far away from home.

Something shoved her from behind and she stumbled forwards, hands flailing to the side to balance herself again. Spinning around on her heel, she was faced with a humanoid creature. It's upper arms were fused to its torso, and they flailed uselessly much as her own had moments ago. The skin was scarred and lumpy. The worst thing about it was the face. Instead of a normal human face, it had a wide mouth stretching from the chin to the forehead in a vertical slash, rimmed with jagged teeth.

Dee screamed.

The creature made a guttural groaning sound and lurched forward, egged by her screams. Another crawled out from behind a car tipped on its side and stumbled uneasily to its feet. As both shambled towards her, Dee felt terror wash over her. She brandished her large kitchen knife, but her hands were shaking and she looked unsure.

The closest creature - the largest of the two at a good six inches taller than Dee's already tall five foot eight frame - swiped at her with disfigured hands. It missed Dee by barely an inch and the woman stumbled back, nearly tripping over the uneven pavement. She took two more hasty steps away from the two monsters, a quiet sob of fear rising in her throat. The one furthest away opened its mouth impossibly wide, almost to the point it appeared its head may split, and made a noise so awful Dee had to cover her ears. It was a sound like a human scream: high pitched and angry, but too loud and raspy to be that of a person.

Dee squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. The noise made her head throb as if she had been hit, and her ears rang. In her moment of distraction, she had dropped the knife, and now the two creatures were so close she could see the details of their disgusting grin-like mouths. One lashed out at her again, sluggishly, but enough to knock her to the ground in her distracted state. It stood over her leeringly, partly-fused arms now hanging by its sides uselessly. Dee tried to struggle free but it screamed again. Dee's vision went fuzzy and she could barely think through the pain.

The other creature lurched over, stopping beside the first. It stood still for a moment before leaning almost double over, letting its arms reach down to Dee, before striking her hard in the stomach.


	5. Missing Persons

**A/N: to answer a guest's question in reviews: the dude comes back and she does eventually learn his name, but not for a couple of chapters yet! I don't know how long depends on how things turn out. Sorry this took so long to get out, but my internet stopped so I lost most of the chapter and it took me a while to re-write it all.**

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Dee gave a pained yell as a hot burning feeling spread through her abdomen. Moving her legs close to her body, she then kicked out as hard as she could, bracing herself for the sharp jolt of pain. The creature standing over her got the full impact of her kick, and was sent flying backwards by a good two metres. The second gave another screech and flailed its arms at her. It missed Dee by an inch and she rolled out of the way, before pulling herself to her feet.

Before either of the screaming monsters could attack again, Dee snatched up the knife and bolted in the opposite direction. She could hear them both chasing behind, giving loud wailing screams which made her head ache. Despite her leg and stomach, they screams got fainted by the second. They were slow, and soon they were barely audible at all.

Dee came to a stop by a huge cream and red brick building.. It had a set of dirty grey steps with a pattern of swirls that were barely visible through the grime. They led to large double doors with their glass smashed in. Each alternate window had an intricate stained glass featuring something different, but several of those were also broken and ruined. The whole building was dilapidated and looked like it had been the victim of a bomb attack, but it had a graceful look about it that indicated it was beautiful once.

The sounds of the monsters were beginning to get louder again, and a quick glance behind told her they were catching up. Without a moment's hesitation she sprinted up the steps and into the building, just barely avoiding splintered glass as she did so. The monsters carried on past the building, oblivious to the woman's presence. Good, they hadn't noticed her going in.

The interior of the building was in an even worse state than outside. It was a library, but almost all of the bookshelves were fallen and broken. Books littered the floor and loose pages floated in the breeze coming through the smashed windows. There was a set of stairs, but the top was blocked off by a three seater sofa tipped on its side and a bookshelf propped up against the banister.

Going deeper into the library, Dee came across a small sitting area consisting of four deep purple sofas like the one blocking the stairs, and several heavy wood coffe tables, some still with half-drunk mugs resting on them. Dee collapsed onto a sofa gratefully, sighing in relief. Her leg was still sore, but hopefully if she rested for a while it would ease off. She should do something about the cut, but there would be nothing useful in a library.

A blink of white caught Dee's attention, and she turned to look. There was a large computer lab to her right, with around a dozen computers, all of which were turned off but one. Dee got up and walked over, stopping in front of the screen. The brightness of it compared to the rest of the dark building was striking. It would have stood out from the other side of the vast room, so for her not to have noticed it was odd.

On the screen was what appeared to be a newspaper article. It was dated three months ago.

_Last night, two year old Christina Crow and her father, Nathan Crow , disappeared from their country home. The wife of Nathan had filed for a divorce two months before, and it is thought that he took his daughter and left home when he was told he would not be given custody of her. Police have begun a search to find Crow and his daughter._

Dee's fingers hovered over the keyboard. She scrolled down to see the rest of the article, but it would not let her go to the next page. At the bottom was a fuzzy bad quality picture of a young dark haired man and a blond haired girl of about two or three. She thought she had seen the man before, but couldn't place where. She was positive it was sometime recently, however. She pressed back to see what the previous page had been, but the screen failed to load. An error message appeared, stating there was no internet connection.

A loud crashing sound brought the woman's attention back to her surroundings. It came from the floor above, but from where she was standing it was impossible to tell what had caused it.

Nervously she got to her feet and crept over to the stairs. They were still blocked off, but there was a second set which were clear. Dee made her way up them, her feet padding silently on the matted cream carpet. She reached the landing and glanced around. There was a wooden shelf by a stained glass window. It hung almost vertically, held on only by one screw. A light dangled precariously from one end, hanging by the wire which lead from a socket in the wall.

Dee sighed in relief. That must have been what made the noise. Still, she found herself grasping the hilt of the knife, which she had shoved between her belt and trousers. She was already on edge, and that sudden noise hadn't helped.

She wandered over to the window and looked out. The street was empty, and there was none of those awful creatures to be seen. There was a dark figure across the street. It was huge in both height and width, seeming to take up the entire doorway it stood in. It was too far away to make out the details, but it looked like a gigantic rotting corpse. It stood for a moment, before sluggishly ambling down the street and out of sight. Dee stared after the figure, until she could no longer see it.

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**A/N: its shorter than I would have like, but I wanted to get it out quick since I was so late. Next chapter will be longer!**


	6. Hallucinations?

Dee frowned and turned away from the window, wondering who, or what, the figure was. It didn't look human, but it was also nothing like the horrid creatures she had seen. It was far too large to be either.

Deciding it was best not to dwell on it, the woman made her way carefully back down the stairs, careful not to put a foot through the many collapsed steps or trip on debris.

Dee checked her watch, only to notice it wasn't working. It said twenty-five minutes past six, which was impossible. That was the time it had been when she was on her way home from work, the whole reason she was in this damn mess in the first place. Silent Hill was odd: it was impossible to tell what time of day it was, as everything looked so much different with the rust and darkness. It wasn't a normal darkness though, but an impenetrable, almost suffocating kind of darkness. It had an unearthly, timeless feel about it. She didn't even know if it was day or night.

Her bag was lying by the sofa, where she had left it. Something was strange though: her bag was open. She was sure it was zipped closed when she left it; she hadn't been in it so why would it be open? When she walked over to retrieve it, she noticed a dark red stain on the sofa where she had been sitting minutes before. It wasn't bright red like fresh blood though, but darker and brownish as if it had been there a while. There was a small trail of dried blood on the old wooden floor, which ended abruptly just before the dirty cream rug started.

A quick check of her bag told her nothing had been taken, but the outside of her bag had a few splatters of blood too, and it was damp with water. The water bottle inside was still unopened, so that wasn't the cause if the water.

Curious, she moved over to the carpet, steely blue eyes curious. She bent down to examine the rug. Aside from being dirty and very much worse for wear, there was nothing unusual about it. Lifting the carpet out showed nothing odd either, until she moved it away further. The wooden floor underneath was also soaked with water, and it had seeped into the cracks between boards. The wood was more rotted there than anywhere else, suggesting the water had been seeping in for a while.

Dee got to her feet and kicked the rug back into place. Whatever the hell had happened, she didn't want to look at it. It gave her an uneasy feeling. Of course it did, water and dried blood didn't just appear for no reason. Unless she was hallucinating. Maybe this whole ordeal was just one huge hallucination caused by the crash, and really she was in hospital, still passed out or drugged up on morphine.

She needed to find a map. That way, she could figure the closes route out of here and get help. Her car was no use, and the road it was on was blocked off, but if she could find another way out she could find a pay phone and call for help, or hitch a ride from someone. Hopefully there would be a tourist office nearby with a supply of town maps.

Making her way out of the gigantic building, Dee glanced back once to the collection of sofas. She was shocked to note that the blood stains were gone, even the trail leading to the rug. Her bag also had no traces of the blood or water it had been covered in moments before. Dee closed her eyes, and re-opened them, as if that would make the evidence appear again. It didn't.

She whipped around and walked more briskly than before, eager to leave the creepy library behind. Before leaving she checked the streets via the window, but there were no monsters around. She ducked through the broken door and stood on the steps for a moment to get her bearings. Not that it did much; she had no clue where she was.

The woman had only just reached the bottom of the stairs when the world shifted. The reddish brown coating that covered everything melted away. Decrepit buildings seemed to slowly repair themselves until they were only half as damaged as they had been before, and the sky lightened until it was only dim instead of dark. Finally, a thick layer of fog settled over the town.

Dee glanced around, taking in her new surroundings. The whole area looked different; she hardly recognised anything. She was hardly fazed though, as this fogginess was a lot more normal than the rusty, bloody surroundings of before.

"Okay" she told herself. "Just find a tourist office, get a map, and you'll be fine." she was hardly convincing herself. She felt so much safer inside. Outside everything was much more open and exposed. Something could come from any direction and she wouldn't see it until it was too late, especially with the dreaded fog.

She headed down the street at a quick pace. She didn't want to walk too slow in case something was lurking out of her line of sight. The knife was still by her side wedged between her belt and herself, but it offered little comfort. She felt like it was necessary to have something more, like a gun or some melee weapon that could do some real damage. She knew what those creatures could do.

A few minutes later she found herself near some shops. There was a small shoe shop - windows broken, door busted, roof partially caved in- and a few grocery stores. There was a large fence a few metres away, with a tiny carpark and a large, uninviting brick building. Upon closer inspection it appeared to be exactly what she had been looking for a tourist office!

Dee rushed over to it and rattled the gate experimentally, but it was locked tight. The fence was far too high to even consider climbing: the drop down the other side would be painful. She had never been much of a climber anyway.

There was a notice on the fence beside the gate stating: 'Keys to the gate are only permitted by owners of Office Block B and its occupants.'

Sighing exasperatedly, Dee ran a hand through her hair, which was crusted with dried blood from her forehead. Office Block B. There were no office blocks in sight. Maybe there was another way in. There was a small side street she could go through, which by the looks of it would lead her behind the building.

Eagerly, she made her way to the small alley which was between the shoe shop and a tiny grey building which had a sign so distroyed it was impossible to read. When she got near the end, it was clear she could go no further. It was blocked off by fallen trash cans and rubbish that smelled of rot and mould. There was a mound of rubble that was almost as tall as Dee's average height frame.

She let out a strangled yell of frustration. Great, there was no way in!


	7. Hope

Dee sighed exasperatedly and ran a hand through her tangle of blond hair. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned back, marching back out of the narrow alleyway. It appeared that getting a town map was out of the equation.

The fence was visible from where she was standing. There was a way around it: the fence went almost all the way around the building and car park, but there was a large section open, presumably to allow cars through. To get there however, she would need to go all the way around, and there was no visible way to do so, with the alleyway cut off and the only other way around was blocked by a fallen tree. No way was she going to try and climb over that; it was huge and there were so many branches she would undoubtedly end up scratching herself.

The large sign next to the gate was obvious even from that distance, and Dee was reminded that it had mentioned office blocks. They had to be around nearby, and maybe the keys were still there. If she could get them, unlocking the gate and getting to the tourist office would be easy. Then she would find a route out of Silent Hill and hitch a ride home.

Feeling a little more positive, the woman glanced around, hoping to find a sign of where the office blocks might be. There was a long, squat building at the other end of the road, made of dark red bricks, making it stand out against the pale stone of the other buildings surrounding it. Dee couldn't believe she had missed it before.

Without even thinking about it, she picked up her pace and jogged over, grinning broadly at her luck. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all.

The building was large but short, only one storey high. There were a number of plain brown doors labelled one to ten in white block print, each with a small window beside it. Each door was shut and unbroken, but several windows were shattered, with glass surrounding them. Oddly, the glass was outside, as if something had broken out rather than in.

Dee glanced around, half expecting some a grotesque, deformed creature to be wandering around, or more to start climbing out of the windows. She stood still for several minutes, but nothing and no one appeared. Deciding it was best to hurry up, Dee threw her bag through the window with the least glass still remaining, and climbed in after. It was a surprisingly difficult task: the window was high up, so she had to sit on the sill and swing her legs over. It was short too, and she had to duck to avoid being sliced by shard of glass.

The inside was dark and cramped. It was almost bare, too, except for two splintered wooden desks with chairs, a computer sitting broken on one, and paper littering the floor. There was a door at the opposite end to the entrance, but whatever lay beyond Dee didn't know.

Dee picked up her rucksack and made her way over to the closest desk. There were two small drawers and a cabinet below. One drawer was lying open and empty. She knelt down and opened the second, which was also empty. The cabinet produced the same results.

She pursed her lips and shook her head slightly. This wasn't looking positive. Striding over to the second desk, she crouched again and opened both drawers at once. Nothing. The cabinet was stuck fast and refused to budge, and after a minute of fruitless yanking she had to give up.

Dragging herself to her feet, the young woman looked around, hoping there was something she had missed that could contain keys. Without the keys, there would be no map, and without a map she had no idea how she was going to get out of that awful town. She needed those keys.

The only thing left was the door. She cautiously nudged it open with her foot and peeked in, expecting something to be in there. Automatic lights flickered on and she blinked at the sudden light, now used to the darkness of the room, and Silent Hill in general.

It was a restroom. A tiny tiled room with a small sink and a toilet. The tiles were cracked and dirty, and the toilet lacked a seat or a lid, but it was considerably less damaged than most things she had seen so far. There would be no keys here, but something caught Dee's eye. In the toilet was something small and silver.

'No way' Dee thought 'is that a key?' of all the places to find something like that, it was in a toilet? That was disgusting.

"I'm not putting my hand in a dirty toilet" she said aloud. After a moment she took out her knife. It was long enough to reach into the toilet without her hand touching it, and there was a large key ring she could hook the knife on to pick it up.

Curling her lip in disgust, Dee bent down with her knife in hand, and slowly lowered her arm over the toilet bowl. After a moment of struggle, the top of the knife caught the metal loop of the key ring just enough to pick it up. She got to her feet and dropped they key ring into the sink. Turning on the tap, she allowed the water to flow over it until she was sure there was no gross toilet residue left. She then stuffed the key in the back pocket of her jeans without bothering to dry them. There was no towel anyway.

With that done, she left the office block hurriedly, eager to get back to the tourist office and get a map. Finally, she had a chance to get out of there.


	8. Ambush

Standing in front of the towering gate, it occurred to Dee that perhaps the building beyond did not have the means she had hoped. It was completely run down: the roof was caved in at one side, making the building look slanted and crumbled. The door wasn't just broken but completely missing, and the road and car park surrounding it was cracked and uneven, as if recently destroyed by an earthquake. It looked dangerous to enter, but she had been so intent on getting to it she never noticed until that moment.

Pulling the her pocket, the young woman unlocked the gate and stepped through. She looked around briefly before jogging over to the abandoned building, ignoring the slight pain in her stomach still. She peered through the open doorway to make sure nothing was lurking in the shadows. It was empty save for a small, splintered round desk, a few shelves and several chairs, which were scattered around. Most of the left side was inaccessible due to the ceiling, which made the space seem incredibly cramped.

There was a pile of paper on the desk, and Dee quickly rifled through it, but she came up empty handed. It was only a load of filing and tourist information. No maps.

She raked a hand through her hair, wincing as her fingers tangled themselves in a tight knot. She knew she looked a mess, but her hair must have been especially bad. Surveying the room, it was evident there was nothing of use. The shelves were barren and there were no drawers or cabinets where anything could have been hidden.

She noticed a light tan wooden door to her right, which was slightly ajar. She could just see into the room. It appeared tiny, but it might have something of use. By this stage she was getting rather desperate, and she needed that map!

There was a quiet sound coming from the room. It was barely audible but definitely sounded like someone - or something was moving around.

Cautiously approaching, Dee's hand went to her knife. She grasped it firmly but didn't remove it from its position by her belt. If something came through, she was prepared.

The door was elbowed out of the way so Dee could step through, and it swung open, banging loudly against the wall. She jumped slightly at the sudden noise, startled.

There was a second of still silence before Dee caught something out of the corner of her eye, as there was the sound of a magazine being slotted into a gun.

Spinning around to face the sound, Dee came face to face with a familiar sight. Disheveled chocolate brown hair, piercing blue eyes not unlike her own, pale, almost sickly looking skin. It was the man from before, pointing a gun straight at her.

Dee took a hasty step back, stumbling slightly. She was surprised, to say the least, and frightened. The man had a serious, but slightly afraid look on his face that told her he wouldn't hesitate to shoot if he needed to.

He stood motionless for a moment before he relaxed. His hand fell to his side and he dropped the gun. It clattered onto the wooden floor, piercing the silence.

"Sorry." he apologized. He glanced down, before turning to gaze at Dee, frowning. "I thought you were one of those...things." he shrugged nonchalantly, but refused to meet her gaze.

Dee nodded. Her heart rate began to slow back to normal and the shock faded fast. She had never had a gun pointed at her before, but in this place she understood that he was jumpy.

"What are you doing here?" she blurted. She hadn't meant to say anything, but it just happened. "I mean, there's nothing here. And what's your name, you never told me."

"My name's Nate. I was attacked. The broken door? I had to bust it in to get inside. I don't think they followed me in." he fidgeted nervously and peered through the open door. "What about you?"

"Deirdre, but everyone calls me Dee. As for why I was here, I hoped to get a map of the place. You know, to find a way out. No luck though."

The man shook his head. Greasy brown hair hung in his eyes and he swiped it away. "I told you, there's no way out. I didn't tell you that to freak you out, I told you because it's true. After three months here, I know."

Dee sighed heavily, and the feeling of being lost and helpless settled over her. So he had been serious? "How so?" she questioned.

"This place, it's different. Almost as if it won't let you leave. Most of the roads are blocked off, too." he replied sadly. He was looking down at the ground, but his head lifted up and his eyes widened ever so slightly.

Raising a slim eyebrow, Dee asked him what he was looking at. Then there was the soft sound of footsteps behind her, getting closer.

Whirling around, Dee saw the small figure of what looked like a child, less than ten feet away. Except it barely resembled a child. The flesh from the nose to the chin was missing, leaving behind a dark hole and exposed bone. The limbs were elongated and fingers ended in sharp claw-like points and the shoulder blades were protruding from the back, poking through skin and flesh gruesomely. The entire body was coated in a layer of blood and dirt, giving it a dark brown colour that didn't even look like skin.

It took a step forward, it's hands reaching out in front of it as if to grasp Dee. It's footsteps left behind dark red blotches like rust. The rust colour spread, until it began peeling away, leaving behind blood like residue. Within seconds the area had changed to the Otherworld.

Sharp talons clutched for Dee and she took a hasty step back. The child-monster caught sight of the man. Immediately, it forgot about Dee and maneuvered itself so it was facing him instead. It let out a quiet moaning sound, like a lost child. If it wasn't for the fact the hideous monstrosity was only feet away from her, Dee's heart would have gone out to the poor creature which made such a noise.

Nate picked up his gun, nearly dropping it again in his haste to get it. He managed to aim and shot twice. The first bullet hit the monster in the shoulder, the second just below the neck. The small creature stumbled each time, but did not go down. It grabbed on to his arm, talons sinking in to the flesh above his elbow. He cried out in pain and thrashed, trying to free himself. The monster refused to let go and sunk in deeper. Thick red blood poured down the man's arm, creating a puddle at his feet.

Dee jumped forward, knife in hand, and slashed at the creature. Her knife sliced it's throat, and blood streamed from the wound. A moment later it thudded to the ground dully, ceasing to move.

Nate sighed in relief, but grimaced when he caught sight of his arm.

"You okay?" the woman asked, concerned.

Nate nodded, pressing a hand to the wound to stem the bleeding. "Fine. I've had worse." he sounded like he meant it. Dee didn't want to imagine what he might mean.

There was a moment of silence before Nate hissed, muttering "Dammit". He grasped his gun and aimed it just behind Dee, shooting three times in quick succession. Something fell to the floor and she turned around, surprised.

Four more of the childlike monsters came into view, squeezing past each other and trying to fit through the doorway all at once. One of them tried to grab Dee and she kicked it away, gasping. Beyond, she could see more. A lot more. "Oh my God."

She felt something grab her arm and she flinched away, but it was only Nate. He dragged her past the creatures and through the door, shoving the small bodies out of the way to make room.

They almost made it to the entrance to the tourist office when the hand on her arm was suddenly jerked away from her. The sudden movement scratched her and left red marks on her skin.

She turned to see what had happened, and saw several of the child-monsters latching on to the young man. He was trying to fight free but there were too many of them.

He faced her, and she saw that his face was covered in blood. "Go" he told her. "I'll be fine, you get out of here."

Dee made no move to leave. Instead, she rushed forward to help, but two monsters detached themselves from Nate and groped for her, pushing her back.

"Go!" this time it was shouted louder. Dee could see there was no saving him. He was totally surrounded by the small creatures. They were too close to shoot and there were too many to push free.

Dee gave him a pained look before turning away. She felt awful, but she needed to save herself. With one last glance at the struggling man and tiny monsters, she ran.


	9. Graveyard

Dee didn't stop running until her legs started to ache. Something connected with her foot and she stumbled forward, tipping forward. She threw her hands out to catch herself. The palms of her hands made contact with the ground and her forehead bumped the pavement.

The woman pushed herself up onto her knees and groaned. The long forgotten injuries throbbed again, and she felt blood trickle down her forehead. The head wound had re-opened. wasn't bad, but it hurt enough for her to notice. She took out her water bottle and splashed some water on her face to clean the blood and dirt off, before getting to her feet once more.

She had no idea where to go. Before, she had been set on getting to the tourist office, but now she had no goal. Was she to wander aimlessly in the hope of finding help? It was unlikely she would come across any. Should she go back for Nate? It was probably too late for him now.

Nate. Dee felt a pang of guilt as she remembered she had left him with the monsters. While she had only spoken to him for a brief moment, she thought that he had seemed like a decent guy. The way he spoke and acted showed her he was a broken man. Would she turn out like him if she stayed here? If she even survived long enough, anyway.

There was a noise far behind her, barely even audible, but it was enough to make Dee scramble to her feet. She wasn't going to hang around long enough for whatever was making that noise to catch up to her.

Wincing slightly, Dee ignored the slight lightheaded feeling and jogged until she was sure she was far enough away. Breathing heavily, she lent against a closed gate. It creaked open slowly and Dee nearly fell forward, but steadied herself.

The gate lead to what, at first glance, looked like a park. It was all dead grass and overgrown bushes, but there were stout stone structures at regular intervals. Gravestones.

The noises were back, this time louder. Glancing around the street, Dee realized there was nowhere to go. The street was wide open with no alleys to duck into, and most of the buildings looked to destroyed to be safe to enter. The only option was the graveyard.

There was just something creepy at the thought of going inside a graveyard, especially in this strange rusted world. She didn't believe in ghosts, but then again she had never believed in monsters until then either. At that moment she honestly believed anything could happen.

However, if she didn't get out of there fast that screeching monster was going to catch up to her and probably take her out.

Dee pushed the gate closed behind her. It wouldn't stop the monster, but if she ducked out of sight quickly enough it might not notice her. If it did, maybe it didn't know how to open gates.

She took refuge by a large dead tree, just out of sight of the entrance. After a minute, two of the screaming monsters lumbered past. Dee watched them nervously, but the were oblivious to her presence. She waited until they were out of sight before daring to move.

She quickly realized just how huge the graveyard was. After only a few minutes of wandering, she was lost. Everything looked the same: huge trees, brown grass, squat grey gravestones. Occasionally there were some larger, ornate ones but nothing that stood out.

She stopped to look around, trying to get her bearings. There was a smallish dip raise in the ground, as if it was a newly dug grave. She thought it was familiar, but couldn't be sure. Honestly, how hard could it be to find your way in a graveyard?

Harder than she thought, apparently.

Something fluttered in the wind by the raised area. A piece of paper. Curiously she walked over to it, picking it up just as it was about to fly away in the wind. The first piece had a small paragraph scrawled in pink pencil, and the other was ripped in half, only part of the writing left. Dee scanned the first page.

_June 12th - Dee is being kind of a bitch today. All I asked was if she knew where my stripy shirt was, and she blew up in my face! Told me to get out of her room and stop intruding. Hardly! I knocked before coming in. It's not like her and Brad were doing anything dirty anyway._

Another section of her sister's diary. Had she honestly acted like that to her sister? She really always had been horrible to her, hadn't she? The last few years, anyway. Dee looked at the second sheet of paper, but she already had the feeling she knew what it would be.

_August 10th - I wonder if Dee would mind me borrowing her green earrings? Probably not. Brad did just buy her those cool hoops last week and she hasn't taken them out since. He's just trying to win her affection. I think it's working. Why am I the only one who can see he's only doing this to-_

The rest of the paper was ripped away, meaning whatever had been there was gone now.

Dee's hand went to her ear, fingers touching the green studs she was wearing. Cora had bought her them for her twenty-first birthday. She had only been fifteen at the time, with little pocket money, but she had known the perfect gift and spent nearly her whole month's money on them. At the time Dee had insisted it was unnecessary, but Cora had told her since it was her twenty-first she deserved something nice.

That had been two years before things had gone downhill between them. After she had started a relationship with Brad, they had drifted apart. Dee had never understood why her family disliked him so much. She did now, and regretted letting him get in the way of her relationship with her baby sister.

A gust of wind ripped the pages from Dee's hands. She watched as they floated away, only to get pierced by a nearby tree branch.

Something behind the tree caught her attention. A huge, bloated human-like figure. The one she had seen earlier! It was closer than before, and she could almost make out the details of its marred face. It turned towards her slightly before shuffling off and out of sight. Dee had the urge to go after it, but didn't want to risk getting attacked. It had seen her though, so why hadn't it attacked then?

She slowly followed the direction it had gone, but found no sign of it other than heavy footprints in the mud. They ended abruptly at a small fountain. It was no longer working and the water lay still, coated in a layer of algae.

Leaning against a wooden park bench in front of the fountain was a fire axe. Dee picked it up and held it experimentally. It would do a lot more damage than a kitchen knife, that was for sure. She decided to keep it. She put the knife in her backpack in case she would still need it, and kept a hand on the fire axe. She didn't know what an axe was doing in a cemetery, but she wasn't complaining.

She sat down on the park bench and rubbed her eyes. She was tired and hungry. How long had it been since she had eaten? Come to think of it, she didn't even know the time. It was constant night in Silent Hill. She could have been here for days and she wouldn't even know. That was not a comforting thought.

Dee got an uneasy feeling of being watched and turned around. Nothing was there. She was alone. She was about to turn back around when something in the water moved. It bubbled for a moment before going still. A hand reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder. Dee jerked away instinctively but whatever it was held on. A split second later a face appeared. A face with a large gaping mouth, set in a gortesque grin, and shiny marbled skin in place of eyes.

Dee screamed.


	10. Empty Building

**A/N: quick message for the guest ****_Dudett29 - _****I had never heard of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia but I checked it out and sure enough, she has the same name! It was a total coincidence. I just chose a name I thought sounded good. Even so it's not that common a name so it is a bit weird.**

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The hand that had been holding onto Dee's shoulder crept up to wrap around her chest tightly. Clawed hands dug into the fabric of her top.

Dee arched her back and flung her head back, throwing herself from the monster's grip. She scrambled to her feet before it could attack again, snatching up her newly found weapon. She swung wildly, hoping to behead it, but the axe sailed past its head. The force of the swing almost toppled the woman, and she stumbled for a moment. In the time it took for her to regain her balance, the creature had managed to drag itself out of the water.

It's legs were fused together, almost twisted, to form a fleshy pulp at the end of its torso. It dragged itself slowly towards Dee by digging its claws into the ground. It left a wet trail of water and blood in its wake.

Dee took hesitant steps back, before swinging again. This time it connected with the side of the thing's skull. It made a sickening crack and blood spurted from the wound. The creature made a high pitched shrieking sound. It crawled towards her for a moment more, more desperately, before falling to a crumpled heap at her feet. Even then it clawed at her, trying to make one last kill before it finally died.

Dee kicked it with the toe of her shoe to make sure it was definitely dead. It didn't move. She sighed in relief and relaxed slightly, letting her arms fall to her sides. Gripping the axe in one hand, she turned her back on the dead monster and walked away. She wasn't staying there any longer than she had to.

It took her ten minutes to find a way out of the graveyard. It was a different entrance to the one she had found earlier, but a way out all the same. She soon discovered that the entrance was right across from a large house. Large was an understatement. It had to be three storeys high and twice the length of any house she had seen so far.

Dee jogged over and pushed the door experimentally. It opened easily. The woman cautiously looked inside before entering. The long hallway was dark except for the wane light provided by a window at the far end. Seven doors led to unknown rooms, all closed, and there was a set of broad stairs to her left. She decided to check out a few of the downstairs rooms first.

The first room was nothing unusual. A large kitchen with an island and dining table. The cabinets proved to be empty and the tap didn't work. The second room was much the same; a large dining table and two cabinets, both of which refused to open. The third room Dee checked, however, was different. When she opened the door, she knew immediately something was wrong. The room smelled of rot and there were strange lumps covering the floor. She pushed the door open further so she could see better.

There were two vagualy female corpses chained to the left wall. The skin visible beneath the chains was blue and peeling. The legs ended in mangled stumps below the knee and the eyes were merely bleeding sockets. Surrounding the two corpses were those lumps of flesh, pulsing at regular intervals, as if breathing.

Dee took a hesitant step inside. The nearest flesh began to pulse faster and moved towards her, but it was fused to the wooden floor. Dee kicked it and although it partially stuck to her shoe, it then ceased to pulse. It deflated, becoming flat and lifeless.

Now that she was inside, she could see better. It was an old fashioned living room with heavy grey curtains and several large armchairs. There was something just visible, hiding behind one of those armchairs. Dee shuffled over to get a better look.

It was a person. Or was. Only the head and neck were visible. More of those flesh appeared to have fused to the body, and were making sucking motions, as if feeding from the corpse. Hell, they probably were.

Dee reeled back, gagging. She could feel bile rise to the back of her throat, but she refused to be sick. She hastily turned away, almost racing out of the room. On her way out she passed the two chained corpses. One of them moved, and it groaned. There was a second where Dee thought it was alive, but it became apparent it was no longer human. It opened its mouth in a snarl and coughed. Liquid spewed from its mouth and Dee dodged just in time. The liquid hit one of the fleshy tumours behind her. It sizzled burned, leaving an oozing hole where the liquid had landed.

Dee stared, her body rigid, then turned her gaze to the chained. Without thinking twice, she hurried past, slamming the door behind her. She was back in the dark hall, alone. Alone but hopefully, safe.

Unwilling to check any more downstairs rooms, she jogged up the staircase. The landing was smaller than the size of the house would have made it seem. There were eight doors, only one of which was open. She went into that one.

It was a bedroom, that much was clear, though it was bare except for a king sized bed, wardrobe and built-in shelves. One one of the shelves was a big black safe. It was one opened with a key, rather than a number pad.

On top was a handwritten note in fancy, looping writing.

I moved the keys, first aid kit and money in here.

Well, there was a first aid kit. She could definitely use that. Depending on what the keys were for, they would be good too. If they were car keys, it could be her ticket out of Silent Hill.

The only problem was, there was no way of getting in.

Feeling disappointed, Dee groaned. Why was it that every time something positive happened, something else ruined it?

Frowning, Dee left the room. Well, she supposed, she might as well see some other rooms just in case. She didn't want to miss anything.

Three rooms later and nothing interesting had shown up. She had looked in two bathrooms and a study, but each were almost empty. The fourth room she checked was an upstairs kitchen. Just as the downstairs one, the cabinets held nothing but pots and pans. Nothing edible or even remotely so. The water worked though, and Dee took the chance to refill her water bottle.

She was just about to leave when she noticed something silver pinned to a cork notice board. It was a key! Possibly the one to the safe? She certainly wasn't going to miss the chance.

She grabbed the key and headed to the first bedroom. When she got there, she went straight to the safe. It took a moment, but the key fit and the safe popped open. Inside was the promised first aid kit, another note, and a piece of jewelery. She took all three things. There were no keys, and the only money was a twenty note and two fives. Money was of no use anyway.

The necklace was the figure of a woman with a long tail. The flowing hair was made of gold and the tail was rubies and diamonds. It was old looking, but beautiful. Dee put it in her backpack, thinking of her sister. Cora would have loved it. She then turned to the note.

September 10th - Dee went to get something from the corner store today. I was left alone with Brad for twenty minutes. He's fine when Dee's there, but when it's just me he's so rude. Mean, even. I wonder if he's like this with everyone. It seems that way.

Why were so many pages of Cora's old diary turning up? It was almost as if the town was doing it on purpose. It was a stupid thing to believe, yet Dee got the feeling Silent Hill was trying to punish her. It wasn't even her fault, dammit!

There was a loud crash from just outside the bedroom, followed by the sound of something large falling. It was deafeningly loud. Dee could feel the floor literally shaking with the impact. It carried on for a few minutes before everything fell deadly silent.


	11. Unconsciousness

**A/N: finally back to updating! Sorry for the hiatus, here's two chapters to make up for it. Updates might be irregular for a while (I say this as if they ever were regular!) but I should be back to updating once or twice a week as usual soon. Holidays are in less than a month so I should update more during that time!**

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Dee stood still for a good two minutes, straining her ears for any more noise, heart pounding in her chest. When she finally gathered up the courage to investigate, she was already beginning to calm.

She crept quietly to the door and pushed it open cautiously. She peeked her head through, checking for monsters.

The hallway was a mess. The staircase had caved in on itself - the source of the noise. The top few stairs were completely gone, leaving a cavernous hole in place and rubble lay everywhere, blocking of the un-collapsed steps.

The blond woman trudged back to the bedroom and collapsed on the huge bed. It sank slightly underneath her weight. She folded her arms loosely on her knees. How was she going to get downstairs? The place was huge, maybe there would be another set of stairs somewhere?

Dee decided that before she did anything else, she needed to fix herself up as best as possible. Pulling the first aid kit over to her, she opened it up. It snapped open and a roll of bandages fell out.

Picking them up, she threw them back in the box before pulling out a bottle of cleaning alcohol. She should probably use it on her forehead before she got an infection. That was going to hurt. A lot.

There was a tiny mirror on the inside lid of the first aid kit that she used to look at the wound. It was crusted with dry blood and swollen around the wound but not nearly as bad as she would have thought. Tipping a small amount of alcohol onto a cotton wool ball from the kit, Dee gently dabbed her forehead where the cut was located. It stung painfully and she winced. Sucking in a breath, she carried on. Eventually it was clean and although it looked much better, it still stung. It would wear off soon though. She pressed a small piece of gauze to it, keeping it in place with medical tape.

There was nothing she could do about the bruise on her thigh, and even though it was a little cut up it wasn't bad enough to need bandages. She kept the first aid kit, shoving it in her backpack. It may come in handy later.

Making her way to the corridor again, she looked over to the stairs again. There was definitely no way she was getting down. She would have to find another way.

She turned down a random corridor, only to be met with more closed doors and flickering yellow light. The window at the end was broken, only tiny shards of glass remaining on the window pane. She could jump from it and land outside. No, too high. She would end up breaking something. Turning on her heel, she went back the way she came. There was another corridor, with two more branching off, leading to somewhere unknown. Almost hidden in the darkness was a door just slightly open, revealing more darkness, and just visible, a small set of narrow steps. They looked like servants' stairs, probably leading to another kitchen or servants' quarters. This house must have been old, and expensive. Really expensive.

The woman nudged the door open with her elbow. It creaked open loudly, rusty hinges barely coping with the movement.

Peering into the dim room, Dee could just make out the stairs, leading down into pure blackness. It was what was on the walls that shocked her, however. More of those grotesque wall creatures. There were at least half a dozen, attached to the wall by chains, their bloated blue flesh wrinkled and peeling.

Dee wrinkled her nose and watched them nervously. They didn't move. Not once. She picked up a piece of broken beam from beside her and poked the nearest creature cautiously. Upon the contact, it squirmed against its bindings, groaning like a woman in pain. It stretched out one hand to Dee, as if trying to reach for her. After a few moments it fell still again.

She would have to run past. If she did it fast enough, they may not have time to respond and she could avoid injury. She sincerely hoped that would be the case.

Taking a deep breath, Dee adjusted the strap of the bag on her shoulder and brushed greasy blond hair from her eyes. It was now or never.

She ran. She ran down the first steps with such speed she was taking them two at a time. The creatures groaned and wailed, but by the time they had reacted Dee was past them. One of them even spurted acid, but it missed the young woman entirely.

Then she tripped. Her foot connected with the step below and her legs were knocked from under her. She landed heavily on her backside and slipped down a few stairs before coming to a halt. She gasped and a hand flew out to try and catch herself, but it came in contact with the slimy, slightly damp skin of one of the chained. Quickly drawing her hand away, Dee gagged. Her lips curled in disgust.

The monster made a quiet gasping sound, not unlike her own. Acid spurted from between its cracked lips, splattering the ground beside Dee.

She flinched away, scrambling to her feet. Before it could try again, the woman had moved down, out of its reach. She watched as the creature writhed, before becoming deathly still.

It was then she realized she had reached the bottom. She was in a small empty room. It was dark spare for one light in the centre; a bare bulb. It cast sparse, slightly discoloured light on the walls, which were blissfully bare of those awful creatures.

Dee allowed herself to relax. Everything was fine. Sighing, she rubbed her neck. It was starting to ache.

She slowly made her way to the door, opening it just slightly. Everything looked clear, though that didn't mean nothing was lurking out of sight. She didn't trust her own judgement anymore.

She peered around the door, straining her eyes for anything that might be hiding behind something or creeping in the dark.

Something touched her leg. Dee reeled back, shrieking, as something small pushed its way into the room. A tiny figure with glowing yellow eyes and a marred stomach, the entrails clearly visible through the gash. Absurdly short legs ended in mangled stumps which the creature could barely walk on. Something stuck out from its back; a large fleshy area not unlike a humped back.

It dragged itself towards Dee, long arms hanging by its side uselessly. It got close enough to Dee that she could see the sharp talons of its fingers, could see the scars covering its face, and could see the eerie emptiness of those eyes.

Suddenly, it lunged forwards. Taken by surprise, Dee was unable to react. It barrelled into her, knocking her to the floor. She landed on her back with a loud thump, arms flailing. Before she could get up, the small creature was on top of her, weighing her down, pinning her. She couldn't move.

She screamed and tried to knock it off her, but was unable to do anything more than sway. She brought her hand up and swiped desperately at the monster. It toppled, falling to the ground. Dee scrambled to her feet, trying to get as far away as she could. Unfortunately, the thing caught her by the floor, sending her crashing down again. She knocked her head against the ground, right on her wound. Gasping, Dee closed her eyes against the sharp, mind numbing pain coursing through her forehead.


	12. Creepy

When Dee awoke, she did so slowly. Something was jabbing into her back and her head throbbed dully. Cracking her eyes open, she blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Where was she? Oh, right. The big mansion.

She looked around and saw peeling cream paint, dirty floorboards and a splintered oak door. No rust, no blood, no monsters. She was no longer in the Otherworld.

She sat up slowly, grimacing when her head spun.

The thing poking into her had been her backpack, the clasp on the strap standing vertical to dig onto her shoulder blades. She slipped the bag off her shoulders and lay it next to her. She sat there for a moment, eyes closed as she tried to ignore the pounding in her head. Painkillers. She needed painkillers.

Rummaging in her bag, she found the first aid kit. It had a small packet of ibuprofen tablets and some aspirin. She took two ibuprofen with a gulp of water. Hopefully they would take effect soon.

Getting to her feet, she slung the backpack over her shoulder again, gripping the strap. She looked around for the axe she had picked up, only to realize it was gone. She had left it in the bedroom. She spun around to face the stairs, jogging back up. She needed that axe, otherwise she was almost defenseless. The knife just didn't quite do.

On the landing, right beside the door to the stairs, was a heap of bloody clothes. A pair of jeans, red cloth, presumably a shirt, and women's ankle boots. They hadn't been there before. Dee would have noticed something like that.

The clothes moved. Rather, something underneath did, making it look like the fabric was squirming. Dee stared at it a moment. It was writhing as if there was a trapped animal stuck inside the pile, but Dee didn't believe that was all it was. This town was more sinister than that. For all she knew, there could be a tiny monster, just waiting for her to let her guard down and move the pile.

Hurrying past, Dee made it to the bedroom. There was her axe, lying beside the bed where she had left it. She grabbed it, feeling a little safer now it was back in her posession.

She looked around before leaving, but there was nothing of use. She liked to make sure though. She then moved back to the hall. The main staircase was still a mess. Dee walked over to it, wondering how it could have happened. It had been perfectly sturdy when she had used it. Now it was little more than a crumbled heap.

Shaking her head, Dee left the ruined staircase in favour of the working one. When she got to the door, she noticed the large pile of clothing had moved. It was no longer by the door. In fact, it was nowhere to be seen at all. There was a small blood trail leading down the hall, ending abruptly just in front of a door.

Shuddering, Dee looked away. She wasn't going near that door. She took the steps down two at a time, eager to leave. Then he was in the empty room again. The door at the end of the room was slightly ajar. Dee cautiously opened it, looking in to make sure it was safe before moving.

It was another room, much like the first, but there was a set if stairs leading down. A basement? And a door just beside them. Well, a little more exploring couldn't hurt, right?

The stairs were dimly lit and Dee couldn't see what was at the bottom. The woman shuffled down, straining her ears for any noise. There was the sound of movement, but it was so quiet she couldn't tell if she was imagining them or not.

When she was at the bottom of the stairs, she could see the dim outline of objects. Her eyes focused, and she could see the objects were furniture. A beaten up leather sofa, a coffee table and a makeshift bed of blankets and an old matress on the floor.

There was something else, too. A man. He had his back turned, oblivious to the woman's presence. When she took a step forward, he turned around.

"What are you doing here?" the voice was deep and rough, and more than a little suspicious.

"I, uh. I came looking for supplies. What are you doing here? Did you see those monsters?"

The man relaxed slightly, letting his shoulders droop. "So you see them too? What brought you here then? A murder? Are you a thief? Or is it something else?"

Dee stared at him, blinking stupidly. She opened her mouth to say something, then shut it again. Finally, she spoke. "What?"

The man took a step towards her. She could see him clearly now. Middle aged, grey hair with the occassional spot of black. His face was marred with deep wrinkles and a few scars. He wore tattered clothes and no shoes.

"Everyone comes here for a reason. Surely you know that?" He chuckled, but it was humourless. "Going by the state of you, you've not been here long. Probably don't even know how to survive. Tell you what; you get me back what I lost, I might be able to help you."

Dee frowned, thin eyebrows pinching together. "How so?"

"I have something that might be of use."

Honestly, what did she have to loose? The worst that could happen would be that he lied, and she got nothing. It was a risk she was willing to take. She didn't even know what she would get in return, but she didn't care. Any help was better than none.

"What do you need?"

"I left something out on the streets. A bag. It has something important in it. If you can get that for me, I'll give you something worth your time." He smiled, but it was more creepy than reassuring.

Dee studied him for a moment, before sighing quietly. "Fine, where is it. Keep in mind I barely know anywhere in this town."

"Three streets from here, by a large brick building. You'll know when you see it; hard to miss."

Dee worried her lip nervously. The more she spoke to this man, the more she got the feeling something wasn't right.

"Alright, I'll go." She ignored her instincts and decided to go along with it. If the bag really had useful stuff in it she could keep it for herself. Without another word she turned on her heels, walking away.

"Good luck girly."

Why did she get the feeling that was more sinister than it sounded?


	13. Author's Note

**A/N: sorry for putting this on hiatus again guys. I don't know if I'll even go back to this because I'm really not liking it much. If I do decide to quit I'll let you guys know. I'll also probably delete after a few months.**


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